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NAMIBIA
Dune 6 ....there is hundreds of these dunesSo we got away from Cape Town the night of the 18th April after the captain organised another day in Cape Town, so that was a sweetener but then hit us with there will be no Praia Cape Verde as we have to make up another day. So many unhappy campers about that as it means 9 days at sea. We arrived in Walvis Bay Namibia on the 20th and were so looking forward to that. We booked a day trip with a local company as the 8 of us wanted to be on our own and we paid extra, but when we arrived in port, we were taken in a company bus from the port to a spot outside the port where we were transferred to another taxi bus and waited, waited! No one knew what was going on and no guide....we finally got going without a guide and we kept saying we had booked a private tour to no avail. Anyway after taking pics of the flamingos, then out to the huge salt mines we finally got a guide on board, but someone else missed out. It seemed the tour company could not miss out on getting as many
IVANS SAFARI
This is how Ivan fills in sea days! 🤣😂 tourists as they could and engaged taxis, vans etc whatever they could lay their hands. The raging bull came to life (John) and demanded a guide as we paid extra, had our lovely guide with us most of the day from there. As you can see from the photos Namibia is a lot of desert, primarily in this area the Namib Desert, where the desert meets the sea and extends for 2000 kilometres up the coast. After leaving Walvis Bay we drove quite a few kilometres to Swakopmund which is a german orientated town and a hugely popular tourist spot and that was evident by pubs, restaurants and nice homes. We had an hour in town and had a good walk around before enjoying a nice cold beer in a local bar. At this stage we got the drift, we were basically driving in convoys, the company had lots of buses on the road that day and really we have to get things in perspective.....we fed hundreds of extra people that day by taking these tours and they were so appreciative of us visiting their country. Our driver had driven 9hrs to help out with this tour, so they grabbed
WALVIS BAY
one the guides extra drivers from everywhere. So you can sort of gather it was a bit chaotic and not much organisation. After leaving the main town area we got lost a few times trying to find where the dancing locals from the shanty town were giving their performance.....finally found them and what a lively happy bunch they were...great performance and lots of smiles and energy. Next stop was the Moonscape a bit further into the desert, you could feel the emptiness of the desert as there wasn't much else but sand and a few shrubs, then we took a dirt road in for about 20 klms where the Moonscape is, a group of a hills and valleys that apparently were pushed out of the earth some 500 million years ago. So we a nice stop here for a couple of beers and nibbles overlooking the Moonscape. We arrived ahead of the most of the convoy so had first dibs at the nibbles and drinks and our bus had to go back and pick up a group who had a flat tyre. First to get away and head back to Walvis Bay. Overall a pretty good day after we knew we had helped
WALVIS BAY
Flamingos by the hundreds so many families in this emerging economy and I hope they dont get ripped off with all their mineral deposits etc.
30th April - after nine long days we sailed into Santa Cruz de Tenerife, we were so glad to see this port were off at the first available time and started to explore the town of Santa Cruz but 1st stop was a pharmacy, Gloria had a blocked nose for nearly two weeks and was getting worse...got fixed up at the pharmacy with some steroid spray as the Sinex and Sudafed had not worked. We met up with Ivan and Renate after the pharmacy and spent the whole morning walking around Santa Cruz, such a colorful and clean town, lovely markets and the people were friendly. We stopped at a couple of local tapas bars for drinks and nibbles, then met up with Chris and Jude early afternoon and had a few more drinks and tapas at a very local place where the locals come for their lunch. Great arvo and we hobbled back to the ship not looking forward to 9 days at sea. We could have easily called at Cape Verde the captain slowed the ship
WALVIS BAY
more birds down a lot so we got into Casablanca at the slotted time and date, its all about money with these big companies, lots of unhappy people on the ship because of the extra sea days. Docked in Casablanca on the 2nd of May (Ivans 70th) and we had booked a tour with a local company that had really good reviews, (NOT FROM US) so our time to meet guide out front of port was 8.15am for a 9am tour, again chaos reigned! Premium Transfers and Tours were out front but there were probably 10 different buses, there was us 8 and then 8 others, 2 arrived 9am and then still missing 6, (raging bull rares again). Turns out some had booked the 9am and 10am tour and all had different meet up times.....getting the picture? It was a pretty lame tour though the tour of the the Hassan II Mosque was pretty good, the guide was fantastic, with not overload of information. It is quite spectacular with the materials used and all the carvings etc. If you come here you have to see it, but the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque Abu Dhabi or Sultan Qaboos
WALVIS BAY
Sandwich Bay Grand Mosque Oman are probably all more spectacular! Tour also took us around a bit of Casablanca and a walk to the palace and through a few of the surrounding streets. John and I were here for a couple of days in early 2000's so saw quite a bit more of that trip. Felt sorry for our travelling companions who had not been here but HEY we have celebrating to do so back to the ship for a few beers in the lovely sunlight on the back deck on level 7, then a nap for some and blowing up balloons etc in our room for our little soiree for Ivan's 70th at 6pm, he was surprised we had done something but we could not let this pass. After drinks and nibbles off to his fave restaurant Extra Virgin for a lovely dinner more drinks, then to see 3 different music outfits play and fell into bed at 11.30pm......EXHAUSTED but a great day had by all!
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